A Maiden's Grave by Jeffery Deaver

A Maiden's Grave

by Jeffery Deaver

Buy (if available): A Maiden's Grave SOLD

Personal Review/Comments

I dunno. This has been called "Deaver's best to date" (Publishers Weekly). Jeffery Deaver is also the author of Praying for Sleep, another best-selling book. But I still dunno. I enjoyed reading it. It is a quick read as it pulls you along with no remission and you go from beginning to end, engrossed. But on reflection, after the book is closed, I am not at all sure I enjoyed this as much as I did his other books (e.g. The Bone Collector). Yes, there are some twists and turns and surprises but on reflection, the characters get shallower and less probable until in the end, it is more like Mr. Deaver was "forcing" the characters do something that does not at all seem in line with their character portrayal up to that point. You will have to judge for yourself if you find this believable. Summary? Enjoyable but not very believable.

Synopsis

Eight students and two teachers from a school for the deaf are kidnapped on a remote Kansas highway by three murderous escaped convicts. They are held hostage in an abandoned slaughterhouse for 18 hours while the FBI's top negotiator, Arthur Potter, attempts to secure their release. The situation is made more difficult because the leader of the convicts is as brilliant in his way as Potter is in his. Meanwhile, reporters are crawling all over the security zone Potter has established, politicians are preening for the cameras, and rival law enforcement agencies are hatching their own rescue plots. Deaver has taken what could have been a routine plot and created a spine-tingling thriller by his judicious use of time, outstanding characterizations, and a plot twist near the end of the book that is as logical as it is startling. In Arthur Potter, he introduces a sympathetic and human hero, a complex, moralistic man who can only succeed at his craft by befriending the vilest criminals and then betraying them. Deaver has also succeeded in making his deaf characters vivid individuals, without a hint of patronizing.

Book Review

"Deaver knits a seamless fabric of tightening tension right up to an explosive double whammy ending." - The Times

"The climax of A Maiden's Grave is to thriller fiction what Fatal Attraction is to film. One's sense of conclusion is shattered by a clever twist which is as frightening as it is unexpected." - Linda Joy, Dymocks Booksellers, Australia

A Time of Omens by Katharine Kerr

A Time of Omens

by Katharine Kerr

Buy (if available): A Time of Omens

Personal Review/Comments

Book Two of The Westlands Cycle. This follows on from A Time of Exile. I didn't think I would get into either book. But I got the latter and though it is quite long ~ overly detailed at times ~ and way too may characters for me to keep track of, for some odd reason, I did enjoy it. So I got myself this, Katharine Kerr's second in the series.

It does help if you have read Book I, but the author does give synopsis so that for those who have not read the previous book, they still have an understanding of what is going on in the current. Again quite a convoluted fantasy tale, over-peopled by characters. If you are in the mood to be immersed in fantasy and not need to hurry along from front to end in a gripping obsession, it is quite a good form of relaxation.

Synopsis

The workings of fate cut across centuries to affect the lives of people destined to bring a vanishing race into the cycle of incarnation in the latest fantasy by the author of A Time of Exile.

Prince Rhodry and his fate-linked companions fight creatures of dark magic in a story that takes place over three centuries and as many serial incarnations. The world of Deverry is richly detailed, and Kerr's characters are genuinely appealing, but the intricate plot requires familiarity with earlier titles.

Book Review

Bad Love by Jonathan Kellerman

Bad Love

by Jonathan Kellerman

Buy Discounted (if available): Bad Love

Personal Review/Comments

Whatever it says about my taste, I must say I enjoyed this Jonathan Kellerman book again as I did his "Obsession". The ending was a bit weak I thought but I had a very enjoyable time all the same.

Rating: 7/10

Synopsis

An Alex Delaware thriller. With the help of his Los Angeles detective friend, Milo Sturgis, Delaware discovers a seemingly random series of violent deaths that may be linked to a clinic for troubled adolescents. As he delves deeper, the escalating pattern of violence becomes inescapably clear.

It came in a plain brown wrapper, no return address - an audiocassette recording of a horrifying, soul-lacerating scream, followed by the sound of a childlike voice delivery the enigmatic and haunting message:

'Bad love. Bad love.
Don't give me the bad love ...'

About the Author

Jonathan Kellerman is one of the world’s most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to over two dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, and Twisted. With his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored the bestsellers Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, scientific articles, two children’s books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include the novelist Jesse Kellerman. Visit the author’s website at www.jonathankellerman.com

Book Review

'Simply too good to miss' ~ Stephen King

Emma; Jane Austen

Emma

by Jane Austen

Buy (if available): Emma

Personal Review/Comments

In the introduction of the book, it writes of Emma being the "climax of Jane Austen's genius" and is, in some circles, regarded as one of her best works. I personally enjoyed it but not so much the character of the heroine (Emma Woodhouse) who though has very redeemable features is also, for much of the book, silly, snobbish, opinionated, and just simply wrong. However, without totally alienating the reader, Jane Austen draws a clear picture of the social mores of those times and the inherent and accepted class snobbery that was so ingrained then. Mr. Knightley, the hero, is a much more likable character but with only two main "heroes", we have to accept the love and inevitable partnering that happens. This book is definitely readable and enjoyable and though the ending is not as I would personally wish in respect to our standards in these modern days, it was certainly a "perfect" ending for the times in which the story is set.

If you liked Jane Austen's style in Pride and Prejudice, you will definitely appreciate her incomparable style here as well.

Synopsis

The most perfect of Jane Austen’s perfect novels begins with twenty-one-year-old Emma Woodhouse comfortably dominating the social order in the village of Highbury, convinced that she has both the understanding and the right to manage other people’s lives—for their own good, of course. Her well-meant interfering centers on the aloof Jane Fairfax, the dangerously attractive Frank Churchill, the foolish if appealing Harriet Smith, and the ambitious young vicar Mr. Elton—and ends with her complacency shattered, her mind awakened to some of life’s more intractable dilemmas, and her happiness assured.

Austen’s comic imagination was so deft and beautifully fluent that she could use it to probe the deepest human ironies while setting before us a dazzling gallery of characters—some pretentious or ridiculous, some admirable and moving, all utterly true.

Book Review

"Jane Austen is my favorite author! ... Shut up in measureless content, I greet her by the name of most kind hostess, while criticism slumbers." —EM Forster

Entombed by Linda Fairstein

Entombed

by Linda Fairstein

Buy Discounted (if available): Entombed

Personal Review/Comments

This is the 7^th in the Alexandra Cooper series. Maybe because this was my first time round with Ms.Cooper or because it has been a very long while since I read another in this series, I did find some of the characters almost indistinguishable from each other. In particular Mike and Mercer. It took me ¾ of the ways into the book before I could even tell, without straining, to remember who was who.

Maybe it was just me. Or maybe if you are already an avid fan of the Alexandra Cooper series, then you might not have this problem. Linda Fairstein, to be fair, did make them "different coloured" people but in a book, that didn't help. And for me, nothing about either character stood out enough from the get-go for me to say which character was on the scene at any one time.

Apart from that wee bit of disgruntled observation, I must say that this is another good read and kept me out of mischief for a little while. And I learnt more about Edgar Allen Poe (or as he prefers, Edgar Poe ~ as you will find out in the book) than I knew before.

Rating: 6/10

Synopsis

It was a crime scene Edgar Allan Poe himself could have conjured, only it was all too real: workers demolishing a nineteenth-century Greenwich Village brownstone where Poe once lived unearthed the skeleton of a young woman -- buried standing upright behind a brick wall. Manhattan Assistant D.A. Alexandra Cooper takes on the gruesome case while in pursuit of the Silk Stocking Rapist, who is terrorizing the Upper East Side. But Alex discovers that one crime thread leads to the other as she follows a trail of clues to the Bronx Botanical Gardens, where a group of Poe devotees may shed light on a stone-cold, modern-day murder of gothic proportions...and a cunning killer with a bone-chilling tale to tell.

About the Author

Linda Fairstein was the Assistant DA of Manhattan's sex crimes unit before taking early retirement in 2002 to concentrate on her writing. She divides her time between New York and Martha's Vineyard.

Book Review

'Alexandra Cooper, like her creator, Linda Fairstein, is a force to contend with' ~ Sue Grafton

"Original, chilling, and brilliant." ~ Nelson DeMille

Hiding From the Light by Barbara Erskine

Hiding From the Light

by Barbara Erskine

Buy Discounted (if available): Hiding From the Light

Personal Review/Comments

I don't quite know what to say about this book other than I read it twice. By mistake. I read it a long time ago and then I bought it again recently - not remembering and once again captivated by the synopsis on the back cover.

Rating: 6/10

Synopsis

The big new novel by the bestselling author of WHISPERS IN THE SAND is a gripping tale of witchcraft and romance, past and present, as her modern-day characters are caught up in a battle that has been raging for hundreds of years. Emma Dickson has a successful City career and a flourishing relationship. So why does the advertisement for sale of Liza's Cottage, a house she remembers from childhood holidays on the rural Essex coast, turn her well-ordered life upside down with longing? Mike Sinclair is the new rector of Manningtree and Mistley, the tightly knit community where Liza's Cottage is situated. He is fascinated by the history of the parish, especially the seventeenth century, when Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins conducted his terrible work. It is his ghost that haunts the old shop in the high street, they say - or perhaps the spirits of his victims. Emma pins her dreams on her move to Mistley. But, once there, she is haunted by nightmares, dreams of the past, of the cottage's original owner at the time of the witch-hunt. The home she wanted so desperately now seems menacing. Mike is worried by the increasing level of supernatural disturbance in his parish.

About the Author

A historian by training, Barbara Erskine is the author of six bestselling novels that demonstrate her interest in both history and the supernatural, plus two collections of short stories. Her books have appeared at least twenty different languages. She lives with her family in an ancient manor house near Colchester, and in a cottage near Hay-on-Wye.

Book Review

"A meaty drama ... a nevel to get tucked into" ~ Sunday Times

"Fascinating, absorbing, original - and hypnotic" ~ She

Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman

Obsession

by Jonathan Kellerman

Buy (if available): Obsession

Personal Review/Comments

Ok, I have read a few bad reviews on this book and all I can say is, I disagree. This book, I enjoyed. We are not talking about high-brow literary art here but just purely good enjoyable reading. The characters are likable, the plot is engaging, the story is well-paced.

One of the best things I liked about the book, particularly in the character of Alex Delaware, is that in the role of psychologist, the things he asks (of his patients) are believable and valid. Nothing denounces a book more than when the author makes their characters "act" knowledgeable psychologist and then sprout TV-psycho-babble cliches.

But then on viewing "About the Author", I can better understand why Jonathan Kellerman comes across as knowing his psycho-babble stuff since he is/was a clinical psychologist. Good to see .. and read, of course.

Rating: 7/10

Synopsis

With scores of millions of books in print, translation into two dozen languages, and one of the most popular heroes in contemporary fiction to his name, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman is the unequivocal “master of the psychological thriller” (People). In his newest novel Kellerman delivers a tour de force–poignant, dark, and chilling–that illuminates a shadowy world where impulse rules.

Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, she still seems older than her years–but her problems go beyond hyper-maturity. Patty Bigelow, Tanya’s aunt and adoptive mother, has made a deathbed confession of murder and urged the young woman to seek Delaware’s help. The doctor recalls Patty as a selfless E.R. nurse struggling to raise a child on her own–a woman seemingly incapable of the “terrible thing” she has admitted. But for Tanya’s peace of mind, Delaware agrees to investigate, and he enlists LAPD detective Milo Sturgis in the search for the phantom victim of a crime that may never have occurred.

Armed with only the vaguest details, psychologist and cop follow a trail twisting from L.A.’s sleaziest low-rent districts to its overblown mansions, retracing Patty and Tanya’s nomadic and increasingly puzzling life to the doorsteps of a sullen heroin addict; a randy real-estate broker; and a brilliant, enigmatic physics student. Suddenly a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets–and bodies–are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death–a legacy of evil that refuses to die.

Dramatic, action-packed, and filled with the psychological detail that only Jonathan Kellerman can provide, Obsession is a whodunit, a whydunit–and something unique: a did-it-even-happen? This is Kellerman at his heart-racing best.

About the Author

Jonathan Kellerman is one of the world’s most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to over two dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, and Twisted. With his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored the bestsellers Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, scientific articles, two children’s books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include the novelist Jesse Kellerman. Visit the author’s website at www.jonathankellerman.com

Book Review

Obsession is the latest masterclass in crime writing from the man who has 'shaped the psychological mystery novel into an art form '. ~ LA Times

Obsession

by Jonathan Kellerman

Buy (if available): Obsession

Personal Review/Comments

Ok, I have read a few bad reviews on this book and all I can say is, I disagree. This book, I enjoyed. We are not talking about high-brow literary art here but just purely good enjoyable reading. The characters are likable, the plot is engaging, the story is well-paced.

One of the best things I liked about the book, particularly in the character of Alex Delaware, is that in the role of psychologist, the things he asks (of his patients) are believable and valid. Nothing denounces a book more than when the author makes their characters "act" knowledgeable psychologist and then sprout TV-psycho-babble cliches.

But then on viewing "About the Author", I can better understand why Jonathan Kellerman comes across as knowing his psycho-babble stuff since he is/was a clinical psychologist. Good to see .. and read, of course.

Rating: 7/10

Synopsis

With scores of millions of books in print, translation into two dozen languages, and one of the most popular heroes in contemporary fiction to his name, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman is the unequivocal “master of the psychological thriller” (People). In his newest novel Kellerman delivers a tour de force–poignant, dark, and chilling–that illuminates a shadowy world where impulse rules.

Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, she still seems older than her years–but her problems go beyond hyper-maturity. Patty Bigelow, Tanya’s aunt and adoptive mother, has made a deathbed confession of murder and urged the young woman to seek Delaware’s help. The doctor recalls Patty as a selfless E.R. nurse struggling to raise a child on her own–a woman seemingly incapable of the “terrible thing” she has admitted. But for Tanya’s peace of mind, Delaware agrees to investigate, and he enlists LAPD detective Milo Sturgis in the search for the phantom victim of a crime that may never have occurred.

Armed with only the vaguest details, psychologist and cop follow a trail twisting from L.A.’s sleaziest low-rent districts to its overblown mansions, retracing Patty and Tanya’s nomadic and increasingly puzzling life to the doorsteps of a sullen heroin addict; a randy real-estate broker; and a brilliant, enigmatic physics student. Suddenly a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets–and bodies–are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death–a legacy of evil that refuses to die.

Dramatic, action-packed, and filled with the psychological detail that only Jonathan Kellerman can provide, Obsession is a whodunit, a whydunit–and something unique: a did-it-even-happen? This is Kellerman at his heart-racing best.

About the Author

Jonathan Kellerman is one of the world’s most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to over two dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, and Twisted. With his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored the bestsellers Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, scientific articles, two children’s books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include the novelist Jesse Kellerman.

Book Review

Obsession is the latest masterclass in crime writing from the man who has 'shaped the psychological mystery novel into an art form '. ~ LA Times

The Bridges of Madison County; Robert James Waller

The Bridges of Madison County

by Robert James Waller

Buy (if available): The Bridges of Madison County

Personal Review/Comments

I saw this movie years ago and thought it was an ok movie despite the big billing of great stars like Clint Eastwood (as Robert Kincaid) and Meryl Streep (as Francesca). I would have said the same for this book except for a strange and unexpected occurrence.

I would not have read this book except for the fact that I ran out of books to read. And now I am glad I did. Despite what I then thought was the mediocrity of the movie, as I read this book, the images from the movie are so strong that they come back, overlay, and add to the reading of this book. This is most especially for the character of Robert Kincaid played by Clint Eastwood. You cannot read the book without seeing him; and also Meryl Streep.

And it is these images that come back in such clarity that makes this book much more enjoyable and recalls to mind both book and movie, the scenes and emotions long after I have put the book down. The book has made the movie a better remembered experience and the movie has added more live and pathos to the book.

Synopsis

Robert Kincaid, a photographer and free spirit, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood dream, reveal what it is like to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again.

Book Review

"This is the story of four days that change forever the lives of two lonely people. Robert Kincaid is a roving photographer for National Geographic and Francesca Johnson is a housewife whose marriage suffers from a lack of romance. Francesca's family is out of town when Kincaid arrives on the scene, and the pair are instantly attracted. They soon become lovers, and Kincaid asks Francesca to run away with him, but she refuses. Francesca stays loyal to her family, and memories of Kincaid are all that remain. Contrived, unrealistic dialog detracts from a well-plotted, quick, and pleasant read."
- Bettie Spivey Cormier, Charlotte-Mecklenburg P.L., Charlotte, N.C.

“A hauntingly understated love story, set in small town America, that stays with you long after you've reluctantly finished reading the final page"
- Terence Stamp

"A story of surprising complexity and emotional power."
- Mail on Sunday

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Stieg Larson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson

Buy (if available): The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Personal Review/Comments

Very readable. Author died unexpectedly. Only 3 books. 2 published so far. Will be getting the other 2 for sure. The Minnenium books were recommended to me by Cindy, my sis-in-law, and she could not recommend them highly enough. I can see why. And it is a shame (for him too of course) that Stieg Larsson passed away before he could witness his well-deserved international acclaim and for us readers because it seems very hard to find authors who are "just right" and when we do, they cannot produce fast enough for our rabid eager consumption. With S. Larsson, there will sadly be no more apart from the 3 he handed over to his publishers before his demise.

Sypnosis

An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

About the Author

Stieg Larsson was the editor in chief of the magazine Expo. He was a leading expert on anti-democratic, right-wing extremist organizations. He died in 2004, soon after delivering the manuscripts of the novels The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels.

Book Review

“Crime fiction has seldom needed to salute and mourn such a stellar talent as Larsson’s in the same breath.”
—The Sunday Times

“Larsson has up his sleeve two extremely engaging protagonists. Once these characters have appeared, our surrender to the novel is guaranteed . . . This is classic English mystery territory. But what follows is much darker and bloodier–more Thomas Harris than Dorothy L. Sayers.”
—The Independent

“The ballyhoo is fully justified . . . The novel scores on every front–character, story, atmosphere, and the translation.”
—The Times

“This is a striking novel, full of passion, an evocative sense of place and subtle insights into venal, corrupt minds . . . The journalist and the hacker are ingenious creations.”
—The Observer

“One of the greatest crime-fiction novels I have ever read . . . As mesmerizing as it is insightful . . . The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a multi-layered, multi-character tale by a writer of some considerable power. Full of social conscience and compassion, with insight into the nature of moral corruption, it knocked me out . . . Mikael Blomkvist and his partner, the enigmatic and deeply troubled Lisbeth Salander, will soon join the pantheon of greatest crime-fiction characters that populate the genre at its apex.”
—Shots Magazine

“A blockbuster story . . . The plot is interesting and credible but above all the heroine is splendidly original . . . An extraordinary book.”
—Literary Review

“An absorbing and idiosyncratic crime novel.”
—Daily Mail

The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The House of the Seven Gables

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Buy (if available): The House of the Seven Gables

Personal Review/Comments

It is always rather relaxing to sit back and read a good classic that actually has some plot and story line. The House of Seven Gables is just such a read. About generational myth and curse, about redemption, about the lives, thoughts, and hurts of people and a happy ending. This is a book when you are in the mood for a slowing down of frantic pace and in the indulgence of time and fancies gone by.

Synopsis

Nathaniel Hawthorne's gripping psychological drama concerns the Pyncheon family, a dynasty founded on pious theft, who live for generations under a dead man's curse until their house is finally exorcised by love.

Book Review

 

The Shack by WM Paul Young

The Shack

by WM Paul Young

Buy Discounted (if available): The Shack

Personal Review/Comments

This was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, with over 5,000,000 in print ~ and I am not sure I know why. I obviously must be wrong if so many people love this book. I found it to be childishly written, with pretensions to depth. And overly Christian in theme.

I will say that I was surprised to find that the book and its characters stuck in my mind for days. So, there may be something to it after all despite it's lack of of depth (IMHO).

Rating: 5/10

Synopsis

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him.

About the Author

William P. Young was born a Canadian and raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of what was New Guinea. He suffered great loss as a child and young adult, and now enjoys the 'wastefulness of grace' with his family in the Pacific Northwest.

Book Review

"THE SHACK is a one-of-a-kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separated me from God and from myself. With every page, the complicated do's and don'ts that distort a relationship into a religion were washed away as I understood Father, Son, and Spirit for the first time in my life." ~ Patrick M. Roddy, Emmy Award-winning producer for ABC News